Chapter Four

The Changing of Stripes

Pairings: ItaSaku, KakaSaku

Kakashi stared down at the beautiful kunoichi in his arms and sighed. The Hokage was hovering over him like a nervous mother hen—but if he admitted it, he was probably just as bad as she was. He placed the cool compress on her face, lightly trailing it across her forehead.

Tsunade said she should wake up shortly, but he still had a large knot of dread in his stomach. It was obvious by how the Hokage's whole facial expression changed once she saw the effect that the news had on her apprentice. She was worried, to put it mildly.

She was also angry.

Who had done this to Sakura and why? Yes, she had enemies...but what would any of them gain by altering her memories? Maybe they wanted to break her mental stability first...

A cloud of smoke appeared in her office and she was immediately on guard. People didn't just appear in her office—they knocked. They asked for permission to enter, and depending upon whether or not she gave that permission, they entered.

The smoke cleared to show a small nin-dog that belonged to Kakashi.

"Yo. I see you have her here."

"Pakkun, what are you doing here? I didn't summon you."

"I've come to deliver news about the kunoichi," he said, walking slowly over to Sakura.

"News? Do you know what happened to her?" Tsunade asked quickly. She walked over to the nin-dog and hovered over him threateningly. "Tell me now."

Seeing no reason to delay the news, Pakkun began to speak. "This is not your Sakura."

That was not what they were expecting to hear.

Kakashi frowned, looking at Pakkun. "What do you mean?"

Pakkun sighed. "What I mean is that somehow, this Sakura has switched places with your Sakura. Your Sakura is in another dimension."

A what?

"Another dimension?" Tsunade asked curiously, a bit surprised—but not really. But her concern for her Sakura overrode it all, and she found that she really wanted to know one thing first. "How is she? Are they treating her well?"

"She's doing a lot better than this Sakura is."

Pakkun stopped talking, however, when someone moved. Simultaneously, all eyes turned to the source.

Sakura began to stir.

Her eyes fluttered open. When she blinked those bleary eyes, she found herself in the strong arms of Hatake Kakashi. She couldn't help but realize that it felt good. Itachi's constant work with the Hokage often kept him out late at night when he wasn't on ANBU missions. It had been a long time since they had actually cuddled. She started to snuggle closer until she realized what she was about to do.

She stiffened immediately.

"Why are you holding me?" she demanded.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "Well, it just didn't seem right letting you hit the floor after you passed out."

Sakura pulled away from him, standing quickly. She suddenly wished she hadn't, because the room began to spin dangerously. She closed her eyes and held still, allowing her body to adjust to her abrupt movement.

"So, are you guys going to tell her or should I?"

Sakura's eyes opened and settled on the dog that looked vaguely familiar.

"You're..." Her voice trailed off as she tried to recall the name that was on the tip of her tongue.

"Pakkun," he supplied.

"That's right. Why are you here?" she asked, none too nicely. Sakura didn't particularly care for anything that had something to do with Hatake Kakashi.

At Sakura's tone, Pakkun looked at Kakashi and sighed. "You guys can tell her."

Then, a puff of smoke filled the air, as the nin-dog went to where he called home.

Sakura stared at the space where Pakkun once stood. Her mind was no longer on the dog but rather, on the news that they had delivered to her earlier.

Itachi? Dead? A pain radiated through her chest as her mind tried to accept what her heart wouldn't. Her hand quickly went to her chest as if that would ease the pain in her.

"Sakura," Tsunade called out softly, trying to gain her attention. Sakura turned her head towards her, but kept her eyes closed. She didn't want to hear anymore. She didn't want to think that all she had known was a lie. That wasn't acceptable. "Sakura, are you listening to me?"

"No, shishou," she said softly.

"Sakura, I need you to focus."

She nodded and tried to focus on what the Hokage was telling her.

"Pakkun came here to tell us that you are in the wrong dimension."

Her eyes flew open at that.

And her brow furrowed.

What?

"Wrong dimension? What does that mean?"

Kakashi was the one who answered. "It means that there is a world very similar to this one that you came from. Somehow you switched with our Sakura."

"So does this mean that Itachi is not dead?" she asked hesitantly.

Tsunade and Kakashi exchanged glances. They both knew that they had no idea how to get their Sakura back to her home—though, of course, they would try, because they loved their Sakura, and her place was with them. It was just that this was something that was beyond them. They had never even taught things like this at the academy.

Sure, they all knew that there were dimensions where they summoned their animals from—but they didn't know that there was a reflection of their own world out there. They also didn't know what kind of damage would occur since the two women had switched. The most important thing of all was that they held little hope of being able to retrieve their Sakura.

The two wise ninjas agreed on one thing.

It would probably be best if the current Sakura let go of her home world.

"Sakura, the Itachi of this world is dead."

"Yes, shishou...but the one in mine is not."

"I'm aware of that. But you have to understand. You're not in your world now…and you may never be again."

It wasn't what Sakura wanted to hear.

She walked side by side with Kakashi.

They didn't converse, although her eyes would slide over to him every once in a while. Tsunade had ordered both of them not to speak of the current events to anyone. The Sakura switch would stay between the three of them. Sakura was also to stay at Kakashi's apartment and fill her in on the things that she needed to know about her current world. At first, Sakura had balked at the idea, stating that people would assume that something was going on between the two of them.

In response, Tsunade merely laughed—hysterically.

"So," Sakura began, "what exactly is your relationship with…her?" She was a little afraid of what the answer would be.

Kakashi raised his head up from his book and stared. "With who?"

Sakura stopped walking and put her hands on her hips. "With the other me, you jerk."

"Now, now, Sakura...there's no need for name-calling." Kakashi didn't even bother to stop walking. "Why don't we wait until we get home before we have any long discussions?" He then directed his attention back towards his novel, completely ignoring her.

Sakura growled in frustration and stared at his retreating form.

How dare he just dismiss her like that? He was always like that. Treating her as if she weren't important. As if she meant nothing.

Just because he was the great Sharingan Kakashi.

Just because he was feared by many.

Just because the village relied on his strength and loyalty.

That did not mean that he was any more important than she was. He had no right to dismiss her.

Sakura's hands curled into fists at her side as she marched after him. She began taking deep breaths, promising herself that she wouldn't let him get the best of her. Not this time.

It didn't matter to her that this wasn't the Kakashi that she had known forever. They were still the same.

Still the damn same.

Kakashi opened the door to his apartment and glanced back at Sakura. Her whole body was rigid. Her fists were clenching and unclenching. She looked like she was ready to hit someone, and he swore it wouldn't be him.

His sense of self-preservation was greater than that.

"Sakura, I'm going to go get you some clothes. Why don't you make yourself at home?"

He left before she could reply. She had to admit she was glad he was gone. A sense of dread had been building in her chest that she just couldn't shake.

She walked over to his sofa and sat down. She slipped off her shoes and then tucked her feet under her on the couch. She glanced at his table and saw pictures on it. There were two. One happened to be of Team Seven when they were younger. The one at its side was of him and Sakura. She was on his back, her arms thrown around his neck. Her smile was a mile wide. Kakashi's arms held her legs around his waist and his eye had a happy little eye crease.

She frowned at the picture. Obviously there was something going on between the Sakura and Kakashi of this world.

"We had just come home from a mission on that one."

Sakura jumped as the voice behind her spoke up. She had no idea how long she had been sitting there staring at the picture, but obviously it had been for quite some time. She turned, and saw Kakashi with a few bags in his hand. She noticed that he had bought her new things. She had expected him to go to the other Sakura's place and grab a few of her clothes, but it seemed that he had bought her some new clothes instead.

"Is that stuff new?" she asked, just to be certain.

"I figured you wouldn't want to wear someone else's clothing, so…" His voice trailed off as he shrugged.

Sakura's mouth fell open. He was actually being thoughtful. She rubbed her eyes, sure that the person before her couldn't be Kakashi. When she finished, he was still there. It wasn't a mirage or her imagination. It wasn't some crafty ninja trick.

It was just him.

No, that couldn't be right. That would mean she would be forced to reevaluate her opinion of him.

For some reason, she didn't want to do that.

"Are you okay?" Kakashi asked, uncertain as Sakura continued to stare at him.

"Fine. I'm fine," she said, standing to take the bags from his hands. But for some reason, he wouldn't let her.

"Thank you," she simply continued. "You didn't really have to."

"I did," he replied.

Sakura shifted her feet nervously. "So...where do I sleep?"

"Come on," he said, and walked towards a closed door in his apartment. He pushed it open and stepped inside. He sat the bags on the bed. "There's a bathroom connected to the bedroom so you won't have to worry about using mine. There are towels in the bathroom if you want to shower. I bought you an extra toothbrush. It's in the bag with the rest of the stuff. I'll leave you to see to your needs. I'll be in the living room waiting for you, and then we can talk."

Sakura nodded her head and let out a soft sigh of relief as he walked out, and softly closed the door behind him. The displaced kunoichi made her way to the bathroom and turned on the hot water. She adjusted the temperature so that it was not quite scalding, but hot enough to steam up the mirror. Sakura then stripped, stepped into the shower, and let the hot water caress her skin. A groan escaped from her lips as she felt the tension leave her body. It had been a long day and she had a feeling that it was going to be like this for quite some time.

Her mind drifted to the man that she was staying with. She hadn't expected him to be so courteous. It was a side of Kakashi that she hadn't seen since before she turned nineteen. For some reason, she didn't know how after her nineteenth birthday, their relationship just went to hell in a hand-basket.

The Kakashi she was seeing in this world was reminiscent to the one she used to know before he changed.

The pain that she thought she had let go of returned full force. Hot tears ran down her face. What was so special about that other Sakura that she got to keep her Kakashi? What was it that she was missing to make the Kakashi of her world hate her so much? Angrily, Sakura wiped at the tears on her face and forced herself to calm down. She steeled herself against those feelings of loss once more and quickly washed her body. She then dressed and prepared herself for the conversation that she was about to have with the Copy Ninja.

It was going to be a long, long night.

A/N: Thank you to my marvelous beta cutecrazyice for looking over this for me.

And thank you to everyone who are reading, who are reviewing, who are favoriting, and who are just being plain old supportive. Kisses to you.